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The Politics of Self-narration: Self-Diagnosis as Digital Counter-Narrative - Topoi
This article explores the epistemic, political, and affective dimensions of self-narration in relation to neurodivergence and self-diagnosis, focusing on how such practices can resist forms of epistemic injustice. Building on Fricker’s framework of testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, we argue that self-narratives - especially when articulated through social media - can serve as tools of epistemic resistance and community building, that challenge dominant medicalized narratives. In the first part we develop a theoretical framework to understand the relation between identity claims and narrative practices, as well as their link to epistemic injustice. We will argue that lived experience of mental conditions and neurodivergence can act as a source of self-narrations that can both be influenced by, and counter, pathologizing dominant narratives. Especially through this kind of resistance, self-narrative practices can build what we call collective counter-narratives that can oppose epistemic injustice in psychiatry. Drawing on this, we explore how digital platforms provide neurodivergent individuals with alternative spaces for recognition and knowledge production. Social media affordances, such as visibility and interactivity, enable community building and identity affirmation, while also introducing vulnerabilities through over-sharing and algorithmic normativity. By analyzing self-diagnosis and online disability performance, we highlight how epistemic agency is negotiated amid technological and socio-cultural asymmetries. Ultimately, we argue that digital platforms can serve as arenas of epistemic resistance, where lived experience is claimed as collective expertise, challenging traditional medical authority, while acknowledging the associated risks and political implications.
